Grayson Hall (born Shirley Grossman; September 18, 1922 – August 7, 1985) was an American television, film and stage actress. She was widely regarded for her avant-garde theatrical performances from the 1960s to the 1980s. Hall was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and a Golden Globe Award for the John Huston film The Night of the Iguana (1964).

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Quick Facts Born, Died ...

Grayson Hall
Born	Shirley Grossman (1922-09-18)September 18, 1922[1] Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	August 7, 1985(1985-08-07) (aged 62) Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
Other names	Shirley Grayson
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1950s–1985
Height	5 ft 6 in (168 cm)
Spouses	Bradbart "Ted" Brooks ​ ​ (m. 1946; div. 1949)​ Sam Hall ​ (m. 1952⁠–⁠1985)​
Children	1

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Hall played multiple prominent roles on the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows (1966–71) and appeared on One Life to Live (1982–83). In 2006, a biography titled Grayson Hall: A Hard Act to Follow was released.^[2]

Hall was born Shirley Grossman in Philadelphia in 1922,^[3] the only child of Eleanor and Joseph Grossman. Her father was from Latvia and her mother, who had acted in the Yiddish theatre, was from South Africa. Both were from Jewish immigrant families.^[1]

When Hall was eight, her parents separated, but they never divorced. Hall became interested in acting as an escape from a painful childhood, and auditioned for plays in New York City while still attending Simon Gratz High School in North Philadelphia. She enrolled at Temple University but did not matriculate. She landed her first professional job with a summer stock company on Long Island in 1942.

In 1946, she married fellow actor Ted Brooks in Philadelphia.^[4] They separated in 1949 and she returned to New York. In 1952, she married writer Sam Hall. Their son Matthew was born in 1958. She had always used the stage name Shirley Grayson, but Sam Hall called her Grayson "like an old Army buddy," as she said in an interview. She eventually adopted Grayson Hall as her professional name.^[1]

Hall enjoyed an active stage career in New York City. Her theater credits include roles in off-Broadway productions of influential avant-garde plays including Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello (Phoenix Theatre, 1955). She also appeared as the madam Irma in the first New York production of The Balcony by Jean Genet for more than a year at the Circle in the Square Theatre Downtown in Greenwich Village.^[5][6]

Having guest-starred on various television programs during the mid-1950s, Hall made her film debut in 1961 in Run Across the River. She also appeared in Satan in High Heels as a cabaret club owner, but she later disavowed the film.

In September 1963, Hall traveled to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to play the role of Judith Fellowes in John Huston's film version of The Night of the Iguana, based on the original play by Tennessee Williams.^[7] She was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Supporting Actress for her performance.

Hall portrayed a kidnapped bank teller in Walt Disney Productions' That Darn Cat! in 1965. She appeared on an episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in 1967.

After a six-month battle with lung cancer, Hall died at New York Hospital in Manhattan in 1985 at the age of 62. A simple marker near her Rhinebeck, New York home reads "Grayson Hall — August 7, 1985."^[10]